Iowa Dad Reunited with Daughter He Believed Died at Birth [PHOTOS/VIDEO]
This is one amazing reunion story.
On the final day of 1968, Tom Taylor asked his girlfriend Barb to marry him. A couple of months later, Barb called Tom to let him know she was pregnant. They didn't share the news with anyone and as the baby's birth grew close they made the difficult decision to put the child up for adoption.
In July of 1969, Barb went into labor. Tom told WHO-TV about that trip to the eastern Iowa hospital: "It was terrible. We cried all the way there. It was really hard."
After the child was born, the couple was told the baby had died. Tom recalls, "It was terrible. Not only did we have this secret that she was pregnant and had this baby but now we’ve lost it and we couldn’t tell anybody… it was terribly hard.”
Barb and Tom got married and Barb would give birth to a son named Scott and a daughter named Jennifer.
After multiple miscarriages, Peggy Jacobson and her husband were the lucky couple who adopted that baby. A girl they named Cheryl. Cheryl, who says she always knew she was adopted, got married and had kids of her own. Her husband, Kevin, is also adopted.
Last year, Cheryl saw a friend post about legislation that let adopted Iowans see their original birth certificate. In May of 2021, Cheryl decided for the first time that it was time to try to find her parents.
When the paperwork came in the mail, it didn't take long for Cheryl to learn what she'd waited more than 50 years to find out. She told WHO that her husband found her birth mom's obituary:
I knew, the minute he turned his phone and I saw her picture, I just knew. I saw myself in her. The husband’s name was that name that was on my birth certificate. That absolutely took my breath away. They stayed together. I have a full brother and a full sister.
Soon after, Cheryl began trying to contact Tom. Believing that he and Barb's first child had passed away at birth, Tom thought it was a scam. He ignored the messages. Cheryl enlisted the help of a search angel. He ignored her messages too.
Cheryl's brother Scott (far left in the photo above) and sister Jennifer (far right in the photo above) knew Cheryl was real after seeing photos of the birth certificate, and her.
Tom remembers the moment he knew this was no scam. It was on Cheryl's birthday. Tom got a picture of Barb's grave with a message from Cheryl that said, "I found mom's grave. I'm here. I've talked to mom and prayed with her and asked God to give you the nudge to accept me."
*The photo below is not the actual photo that Cheryl sent Tom.
Last summer, Cheryl met her birth father, brother, sister, their spouses, and many other relatives.
Just before Christmas, Cheryl announced that she, her brother Scott, and sister Jennifer had all gotten matching tattoos.
Cheryl says the matching tattoos are a tribute to her birth mom, Barb: "Her favorite Psalm was 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God." I so wish she was here with us in person, but I know she is rejoicing in Heaven."
It really is one amazing reunion story.
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